“There is a massive, thriving and growing competitive and innovative community of dozens of major blockchain network ecosystems, all around the world, that are constantly improving and innovating in the fundamental technology of these networks including in data availability, compute, security, privacy, transaction throughput, and so much more.”

Another deep-dive from my earlier post:  I’m more bullish than I have ever been about crypto.  https://x.com/jerallaire/status/1803432989113593890

One of the things that is often overlooked when most of the world looks at the world of crypto is the incredible velocity that we’re seeing new innovations in blockchain network technology.  As I noted in yesterday’s post about my mental model of blockchain networks as internet operating systems, when one zooms out from where we started 10+ years ago until today, the capabilities of these networks have expanded pretty dramatically.

Crypto, internet, open software, global macro, human rights.

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Why wouldn’t we want our internet operating systems to be open and secure in this manner?  Even more so, the operation and functioning of these systems is also provably secure, obviously with varying trust and assurance assumptions depending on the security model of the blockchain network.

So, we’ve seen 10+ years of continuous innovation and iteration, where every innovation is made available as public intellectual property, and people can fork, improve, and further develop the infrastructure.  The velocity of this is astounding, and if anyone thinks that any central government or corporation (Cathedral’s) is going to be able to out innovate the open blockchain ecosystem (The Bazaar), they are sorely mistaken.

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The other key point that I’m trying to land with the quote above is specifically about the ecosystems themselves.  As a technologist, it’s a marvel to see the thousands of projects that are spawning around the world to advance features of blockchain networks.  Even as someone who’s been deeply in this space for over a decade, I consider myself a novice in terms of understanding, because the surface area is so broad and each topic very deep.  I’m a 1%’er.  I only truly understand about 1% of the technology innovation that’s happening in this community right now.

Take any given topic – say “compute”, as noted above – and the amount of technical innovation happening is extraordinary.  There are dozens of major projects advancing the state of the art in blockchain virtual machines, languages and compilers, and the weaving together of these compute engines with cryptography to improve performance, security, privacy and data availability.

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Most importantly, when considering the “innovation output” of blockchain networks and the broader ecosystem, it’s incredible to see the sheer volume of young and passionate talent that are building in this space.  The builders in this space are among the most passionate, energized and mission-driven that I’ve seen from any internet platform ecosystem in 30 years.  It really deeply reminds me of the energy that fueled the Web/Internet 1.0 revolution – a deep belief in the transformative potential of this technology, and a feeling that we are building something that will sweep over the world and forge a new layer of capabilities for society and the economy.  

This is truly generational energy being poured into writing code, solving problems, engaging in community debate, and pushing forward on thousands of fronts simultaneously.

Yes, I’m insanely bullish about the state of innovation in blockchain network technology.

JA

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A central tenet of all of this has been that the blockchain ecosystem has been fueled by a deep commitment to openness, transparency and community-driven development and governance.  

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in meetings with central bankers or teams of leaders at major financial institutions where one of their primary retorts has been that this infrastructure is not controlled, that it can’t be trusted the same way that the servers and data centers that they control can be.  This POV pretty deeply misses the point.

The MOST secure systems in the world are the ones that are built out in the open – where literally every piece of code, every facet, every function are available for the entire world to inspect.  Open software is probably more secure than closed systems, time and time again.